Over a ten-day period the scientists saw the star become 100 times brighter than usual and analysis showed similarities to when two stars merge. Now, for the first time, astronomers have seen what that could look like because another planet in the Milky Way has been seen getting swallowed by its own star.Įxperts from Harvard, Caltech and MIT were studying a star 12,000 light years away which was entering its red giant phase at the end of its life and swelling in size.Īs the star expanded in an attempt to extend its lifespan because it was running out of fuel it started dragging an orbiting planet towards it, before engulfing it. In five billion years it will likely be engulfed by our own Sun and devoured by a stellar inferno. Few people would want to know the time and nature of their own demise, but for planet Earth, its fate is sealed.
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